Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Growing up, we always had the canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.  I never cared for it and I still don't.  Enter homemade cranberry sauce--simple and much more tasty--and I'm hooked!  Not to mention, the homemade stuff is so pretty, too!

Ingredients:

Large bag (I used 32 oz.) of fresh (or frozen) whole cranberries--reserve 1 c. of berries
3 c. white sugar (you can reduce the amount if you wish)
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. lemon juice (can use orange juice for a sweeter taste)
pinch of salt, pepper, and cinnamon

Simply place all but the 1 c. of cranberries into a large pot. add the sugar and the lemon juice, and stir it up well.  Make sure that no dry sugar remains on the bottom of the pan so it won't burn.  The sugar will still be fairly dry, but it should have a slight coating of moisture from the citrus juice.  Turn the burner on to a low setting and allow the berries to become soft, approximately 10 minutes, continuing to stir every so often.

Once the berries have begun to soften a bit, turn the heat up to medium for at least another 10 minutes. As the berries heat up, they will burst--I love the little popping sound they make!  Continue to stir the mixture with some frequency.  It's fine if you want to press the berries up against the side of the pot to hasten their explosions. :)  By the end of those 10 minutes, the berries will have released most of their juice and you will have a nice, soupy mixture on your hands.

At this point, you want to add those berries you reserved in the beginning so you have a little contrast with whole berries versus the disintegrated ones.  Remove the pot from the burner.  The whole berries will soften up in the hot cranberry sauce; some of them may even pop as well, which is fine.  You can also add in the salt, pepper, and cinnamon.  It sounds strange to add salt and pepper, but it gives it a more full flavor. The sauce will begin to thicken as it cools.

Next, simply pour the berries from the pot into a serving dish, allow to cool, and serve when ready.  If storing overnight, I would suggest covering with plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out and place it in the refrigerator.

Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

The other week I had a rather large bag of peanut butter M&M's on hand and I wanted to bake some of them up in a treat.

I decided a cookie bar would be the perfect solution.  While I'm a huge fan of peanut butter M&M's on their own, for me, personally, a cookie bar isn't complete unless it also has chocolate in it.  Especially when the bars also have peanut butter in them.  So, enter my Peanut Butter M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars creation.  The title is almost longer than the time it takes to throw them together! ;)

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
2/3 c. smooth peanut butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c. peanut butter M&M's
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Oven Temperature: 350 degrees
Baking time: 25 minutes

Combine the first 4 ingredients, mixing until smooth.  Add in the eggs and vanilla, again mixing well. Next mix in the dry ingredients.  Once all ingredients have been fully combined, it's time to add the M&M's and chocolate chips.  I love how pretty M&M's look.

Once the extras are mixed in well, it's time to place the mixture into a lightly greased 9x13" pan.  This will not spread out very well on its own, so you'll have to use your hands to get the bars in place.  If you are worried about the dough sticking to your hands, you can simply spray a little non-stick spray on your hands or use a piece of wax paper for pressing down on the dough.

Place the bars in your preheated oven, allowing them to bake for approximately 25 minutes.  They'll need to set for about 5 or 10 minutes once you remove them from the oven.  (If you don't care for moist, soft cookie bars, go ahead and bake this for a full 30 minutes for a slightly firmer result.)

Remove from the oven and allow the bars to cool.  The edges should be slightly golden brown and the center should be set.  Once you've waited for as long as you can stand it, go ahead and slice into bars and serve up.  These taste the best when they are warm.  My apologies that the next picture ended up being blurry...unfortunately I can't retake it as these bars didn't last long enough! ;)  Trust me when I tell you these things are GOOD!!

White Chicken Enchiladas

This can be about as bland or spicy as you like it.  I didn't happen to have any diced green chilies on hand, so I tried to kick up the heat a bit by adding some cayenne pepper.  I guess only the photos look "bland" since everything is white, but don't let looks deceive you.  And add green chilies in when you make it so your dish doesn't look as boring as mine does! ;)

Ingredients:

10 flour tortillas, approx 8" in diameter

2 c. cooked, chopped chicken

2 c. of your favorite cheese--monterey jack, cheddar, or mozzarella (note that cheddar cheese will be a bit greasier)

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. flour

2 c. chicken broth

1 c. sour cream

1 4-oz can diced green chilies (optional)

Oven Temperature: 350 degrees

Baking Time: 25 minutes

Combine your chicken and 1 c. of cheese.  I used mozzarella cheese tonight.

Spoon a generous amount onto a tortilla and roll it up.

Place filled and rolled tortillas into a lightly greased 9x13" pan.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and then stir in the flour.  Allow it to cook on medium heat for about a minute.  Then add the chicken broth, whisking until mixture is smooth.  Heat until it's thick and bubbly.

Once the liquid mixture has thickened, carefully add the sour cream and chilies to the sauce, stirring gently to combine.  Make sure you don't boil the sauce or the sour cream will curdle.  Not the end of the world if it does, but best to just keep it at a warm temp rather than hot. Mine may have curdled a bit. It didn't affect the taste any.

Pour sauce evenly over the top of the rolled up tortillas and top with remaining cup of cheese.

Bake for 25 minutes and remove from oven.  Serve hot with excess sauce drizzled over top of enchiladas.

5-Minute Caramel Corn

A friend just posted a Facebook recipe on her page and I had to try it immediately.  It did not disappoint. I have a different caramel corn recipe that I make each Christmas that requires baking it for almost an hour.  It tastes great, but who has that much time on their hands most of the time?  When you are craving a sweet topping for your popcorn and would like it fast, this is a great way to go.  Note that the popcorn will be a bit soggy from this topping, but it tastes great!

Ingredients:

Popcorn--approximately 12 cups.  I use an air-popper to pop our corn.
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
Handful of mini-marshmallows (around 20)

Melt the butter in the microwave and stir in the brown sugar.  Put the marshmallows in and microwave it for about 20-30 seconds longer, or until the marshmallows begin to melt.  Stir until all ingredients are well combined and pour over the popcorn.

Roman Lasagna

A number of months ago, I posted my American lasagna recipe.  I specified that it was American because I knew I was going to post the recipe for Roman Lasagna at some point.  That time has now arrived.  This is an authentic Italian recipe--my husband's family lived in Italy for a few years a long time ago, and this is one of the recipes they brought back with them.  I can recall my mother-in-law making this one of the first times I came to visit when my husband and I were still dating.  It was delicious then and just as delicious now.  This is a meatless recipe (unless you add panchetta, but I never do), and a good way to get extra veggies in your meal.  The lasagna layers two kinds of sauces and 2 kinds of cheeses. The addition of nutmeg is imperative; I think it adds the best flavor to this dish...it's there, you can sense it, but it's not overpowering.  This is not a very fast recipe to make, and it does require a number of steps, but it's worth it!  Enough background information, time for the recipe! :)

Ingredients:

Red Sauce:
1/4 c. olive oil
1 carrot, shredded
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, chopped
panchetta (optional)
2 15-oz. cans tomato sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. pepper
White Sauce:
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
pinch of nutmeg (approx 1/4 tsp.)
1 1/4 c. milk

Lasagna noodles, cooked
Parmesan cheese
Mozzarella cheese

Oven Temp: 350 degrees
Baking Time: 30 minutes, or until heated through.

Gather all your ingredients together to start off--there are a lot that you need, so it's helpful to at least have them all handy.

I always start out by putting the water on to boil for the lasagna noodles.  Pretty simple.

Then, it's time to work on the red sauce while you wait for the water to heat up.  Here are the red sauce ingredients:

Start out by chopping up/grating the veggies and placing them into a pot with olive oil.

Saute the veggies for a few minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and chicken bouillon.  Stir well and allow to simmer, uncovered.

By now, your water should be boiling, so go ahead and throw the pasta in.

I find that lasagna has a tendency to stick together, so I also added some oil to the pot once the lasagna softened up a bit.  Boil until noodles are tender.

While the noodles are boiling, it's time to start working on the white sauce.

Place the butter in a medium saucepan and melt it at a med-low heat.  Add the butter and a pinch of nutmeg, stirring well.  Allow it to cook for a minute or two before adding the milk.

Add the milk.  Stir well and allow the sauce to thicken over med-low heat.

Meanwhile, the lasagna noodles are probably cooked and ready to be drained.

While you wait for the white sauce to finish thickening up, make sure to keep the lasagna noodles wet; I spray them with water and move them about a bit to keep them from sticking together.  You can also place a layer of the red sauce on the bottom of your 9x13" pan and place the first row of noodles on top of it.

By now the white sauce should have thickened and be ready to add to the lasagna.  You will be creating layers and repeating them about 6 times.  Noodles, red sauce, white sauce, Parmesan cheese...repeat!

When you come to the last layer of noodles, rather than topping the sauces with Parmesan, you're going to use mozzarella cheese.

Check out all the layers!

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and serve up nice and hot!  Goes great with a crusty loaf of bread and a garden salad!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Syrup

We had another can of pumpkin puree to use up, so my daughter requested pumpkin pancakes on Saturday morning.  We figured we'd give them a try and even made some cinnamon syrup to go along with them.  She loved them.  I just thought they were okay, but everyone has different tastes, so if you like pumpkins and cinnamon, you might really like this recipe.

Ingredients (pancakes)
3 c. milk
1 can pumpkin puree--15 oz.
2 eggs
4 Tbsp. veg oil
4 Tbsp. vinegar
4 c. flour
1/4 c. + 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. all spice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. salt

Combine the first 5 ingredients and mix well.  In a 2nd bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.

At this point, simply combine the ingredients, mixing all of it together so that no dry areas remain. The batter will be a nice, thick consistency.

Pour about 1/4 cup per pancake onto a hot griddle.  Feel free to spread the batter out a little bit so the pancakes aren't too thick.

Within a couple of minutes, the pancakes will puff up quite a bit.

Once the edges of the pancakes look a little dry, it's time to flip them and cook the other side.

Press down gently so that the pancake cooks all the way through.

Once done, serve up with your favorite kind of syrup.

On this particular day we made cinnamon syrup (see recipe below), but other options would be to thin out the cream cheese frosting from the pumpkin bar recipe (by using extra milk to form a syrup consistency), using plain syrup, or adding toasted pecans in a buttery syrup.

Cinnamon Syrup

1 c. brown sugar
2 tsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
splash of vanilla
1 c. water

Heat on stove top, stirring frequently, making sure there are no flour pieces remaining.  The syrup should begin to thicken; once it's at a normal syrup consistency, it's done.  Spoon onto your pancakes and serve!